Saul
by SonicLover
Summary: When Sonic's pursuits are interrupted by a fan of his, things don't quiet down too quickly. Of course, they never do. Just how will all of this turn out? We'll see.
1. Prologue

Saul

Disclaimer: The title character is mine entirely. The others… eh, you know.

Author's note: Since I've kind of gotten bored with "Red and Purple" for the moment, I've decided to pull up a new story. I really don't know where I'm going with this, but rest assured, I'm going somewhere. I hope this concept isn't too overdone. Of course, that didn't stop me when I wrote "A Boundary Crossed."

* * *

Prologue

* * *

BZZT! BZZT! BZZT! BZZT!

"Ugh. Is it morning already? I was right in the middle of a great dream."

With a big yawn, he climbed out of bed, wondering how the day ahead would go. On all four sides of his room were posters depicting Sonic the Hedgehog; he paused and looked admiringly at the one nearest the bed for a few seconds.

The room, an apartment in the city, was just like any other at first glance, but he had taken measures to make it truly his own. A television with a built-in VHS tape player rested on the cabinet across from the bed.

A bookshelf to the left of the cabinet contained a series of video tapes which he owned. Most of them were recordings of news reports on things like the Chaos incident and the original Shadow fiasco, but they all featured Sonic.

On the other side of the room, a writing desk was positioned against the wall. A few diagrams had been left on the desk, captioned "SONIC SPIN DASH" and "SPIN JUMP," along with a used #2 pencil. One diagram, captioned "HOMING ATTACK," had been left unfinished.

He approached the cabinet and opened the top drawer. The drawer hosted a pile of left-hand white gloves. After choosing one glove, he closed the drawer and opened the next drawer down, revealing a pile of right-hand gloves like the ones in the drawer above.

Once he had two like gloves, he pulled them onto his hands, one at a time. This was the procedure he went through every morning, and it never seemed to change. He liked it this way.

In the corner of his room was the door to the closet. He made this his next stop, and as the door swung open, it revealed a nice pair of roller-skates. These were always kept in as good a condition as possible, since he used them often.

One skate popped onto its respective foot, as did the other. These skates were the fancy type where you could retract the wheels into the shoe when you wanted to walk normally. The wheels were currently retracted, so he wouldn't stumble as he walked across the room.

He paused to admire himself in the bathroom mirror. He had mostly white fur, save for his chest, which was black, and his arms and legs, which displayed intermittent black stripes similar to a tiger's. His tail, which was striped with alternating blacks and whites, twitched slightly behind him.

_Just as good-looking as always,_ he thought to himself, strolling over to the kitchen area. He filled a thermos with 2 percent milk and picked up a granola bar from a basket on the counter. He would consume them later; he wanted to get moving ASAP.

The morning paper had been left at his doorstep. Picking it up, he carefully undressed it and flipped through the pages until he found the horoscope section. Among the various astrological signs was his own, and it read as follows:

**AQUARIUS (Jan 21 to Feb 19) - Today's your day. The goal of your dreams is likely to be achieved today. Just press yourself as hard as you can, and you're sure to make it. If you haven't been trying, by all means start now! Later today, you might be able to escape work early by tricking your boss; he'll be particularly gullible today.**

"So the heavens have blessed my journey this time around," he said to himself, grabbing his yellow backpack from its spot in the corner. "Today's the day, then. Today's the day I finally get Sonic's autograph."

As an afterthought, he picked up the diagrams that lay on the writing desk and carefully slipped them into the backpack's front pocket before slinging it over his back. "Today's the day I get it, or my name's not Saul the Raccoon!"

Leaving those words in the air, he proudly marched out of the apartment, pausing only to lock the door on his way out.

* * *

Well, it's only a prologue. It doesn't have to be TOO long, right?

Secrets: There's actually a backstory behind how I came up with Saul's character. Keep an eye on this section; in future chapters, I'll reveal more details. 


	2. Just Plane Wrecked

Saul

Author's note: Only three reviews. I guess until Nail Strafer and Deltoran Merchant show up, I can enjoy myself. Let's see here.

* * *

Chapter 1: Just Plane Wrecked

* * *

"Sonic! Look out!" Tails yelled as he piloted the _Tornado_ above the landscape. "According to the Tornado's radar, Dr. Eggman has planted land mines up ahead!"

The super-fast blue hedgehog zoomed down the forest path at hotrod speed. Behind him, a gigantic robotic mech on wheels pursued him with no less determination. The evil genius Dr. Eggman was piloting the mech, on the side of which was spray-painted "EGG CHEETAH MK I".

"You're mine this time, hedgehog!" the doctor growled. "You can run, but you can't hide!"

In the field ahead, several land mines were hidden in the ground. Sonic didn't even pay attention to the mines as he ran over them; he ran so fast, by the time a mine exploded he was already a safe distance away.

To this effect, Sonic left a trail of explosions in his wake. The Egg Cheetah Mark 1 was unlucky enough to get hit on the side by one such explosion, and while the explosion didn't harm the thing physically, the force did cause it to tip on one side.

This left the Egg Cheetah Mark 1 literally spinning its wheels uselessly as Eggman hit the ejector and got away in time to avoid getting fried by more explosions. "Why does that ALWAYS happen?" he muttered to himself.

Tails dropped the _Tornado_'s altitude, allowing Sonic to jump up and grab the biplane's wing. Then, as Sonic got his footing, Tails prepared to pull up and regain altitude.

If only they had seen the large tree the plane was about to collide with.

* * *

"Can you believe it?" Sonic said as he and Tails surveyed the damage to the plane. "It took six hundred bolts to hold this plane together and only one nut to dismantle it completely."

The _Tornado_ had been seriously wrecked in the accident. The collision had literally ripped the plane in half, and when it hit the ground, both halves had taken further damage. Tails himself had received a lot of scrapes and bruises, but they weren't visible beneath his topaz fur.

"It'll take a lot of work to get it fixed," Tails commented, "but with me working on it, it should be good to go in a few days."

Sonic nodded. "Do you want me to help you get the plane down to your workshop, Tails?"

"No," Tails replied, "I think I can get it myself. Thanks for the offer, though."

"Anytime. I'm gonna go down to the city plaza to unwind a little. If you need me, just give me a yell, okay?"

And with that, Sonic charged up his signature technique, the Spin-Dash, and zoomed off in a blur of blue, as Tails watched admirably.

* * *

The city plaza was the center of the city's shopping district. All kinds of stores surrounded the fountain in the middle: the costume store, the candy store, the drug store, the jewelry store, the software store, etc., etc.

As a result, the area was quite popular. Many people of all kinds filled the sidewalks. The park benches that surrounded the fountain were rarely used by anyone, since nobody ever seemed to have time to sit down.

Sonic the Hedgehog sat on one bench and watched the pedestrian traffic go past him. Few people noticed him, and those who did didn't stop for whatever reason. Sonic enjoyed escaping the crowd like this.

"Excuse me! Pardon me! Let me through! LET ME THROUGH, I SAID! Coming through! Excuse me!"

This one voice stood out among all others as one pedestrian pushed his way through the crowd. He was headed for the park bench Sonic was sitting at. But what was so important …?

Finally, the pusher emerged from the crowd and screeched to a halt in front of Sonic. He was a young raccoon, about the age of Sonic himself, and wearing a pair of roller-skates.

"SONIC!" the raccoon finally exclaimed in delight. He seemed quite excited about seeing the hedgehog in person.

Sonic didn't have a lot of fans chasing after him (aside from the usual cast, of course), so he found this newcomer a little odd. "Who are you, kid? What's your name?"

The raccoon bowed. "A-Allow me to introduce myself. Saul's my name. I've been- I've been looking for you all morning. I'm your biggest fan, Sonic. Is that really you, in the flesh?"

"In the flesh," Sonic confirmed. "I always wondered when someone would give me that talk. Nice to meet you, Saul."

"Oh, the pleasure is mine," Saul replied. "Sonic, I know all about you. That very first time on South Island when you wrecked that Dr. R for his evil deeds…"

With that beginning, Saul sat down and proceeded to tell Sonic all about his own history. To Sonic, hearing his own life story was a little boring, but at the same time it was a little interesting.

Finally, Sonic stood up. "Say, uh, Sol-"

"Saul," Saul made the correction. "S-A-U-L. It's pronounced 'shoal'. Don't worry, you're not the first to make that mistake."

"All right. Saul, do you have the time?"

"It's, uh, half past eleven."

"In that case, I'd better get going. I promised Tails I'd meet him for lunch today."

"Oh, you did? Can I come with you?"

"Sorry, but I've got enough obsessive lunatics following me around everywhere. I'll catch you on the flip side, Saul. Later!"

Before Saul could even say good-bye, Sonic had disappeared into the crowd, leaving the raccoon sitting on the same park bench as Sonic was on before. He hadn't even had a chance to ask for Sonic's autograph.

Saul sighed. "Stupid horoscope. Now I'll never get that autograph. What do I do now?"

At that moment, a second voice, a female voice, pierced the crowd. "Sonic! I know you're here somewhere! You can't hide from me forever! Stop hiding, Sonic!"

* * *

I think I'll wrap it up there. Whew! A full three scenes in one chapter. I don't do this kind of thing often.

Secrets: Saul was originally created to be my character for a Sonic-based online RP called "SegaStH". I'll tell you more in later chapters. 


	3. Lunch Break

Saul

Author's note: Looks like Nail Strafer's back. I've never actually seen Nail Strafer's back, however, so I don't know what it looks like. Not that that matters.

I like it when reviewers can see themselves in my characters. It shows that I've created characters they can identify with. In fact, I could more than see myself in Leo from "A Boundary Crossed" when I was writing that story. Nevertheless here's the next chapter.

* * *

Chapter 2: Lunch Break

* * *

Saul watched as a female pink hedgehog pushed herself through the crowd and emerged in front of the park bench, just as he himself had done earlier. She stopped in front of Saul and looked around, but her target, Sonic, was long gone.

"You look out of breath," Saul commented. "What's wrong?"

"I followed Sonic here," the girl explained, "but I lost him in the crowd. He's just too fast for me. Do you know where he went?"

"If I did, I'd be there, not here," Saul remarked with a smirk.

"Do you mean-? Well, now you're on my turf! Just who are you, you stripy-tailed jerk?"

Despite getting insulted this way, Saul remained calm as he introduced himself. "My name's Saul, Saul the Raccoon. Sonic the Hedgehog is- well, I'm a big fan of him and his deeds. I found Sonic sitting on the bench here, but he got away before I could ask for his autograph."

The girl blinked as she calmed down. "You're a fan of him? Well then, we've hit a common wavelength. Sonic just happens to be my boyfriend."

Hearing this, Saul suddenly snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute! I think I recognize you! You're that girl who's always chasing Sonic around like it's the only thing that matters, right? Amy Rose, right?"

"That's me! You really are a fan of Sonic, if you can make that connection. But, uh, how did you find Sonic before I did?"

Saul shrugged. "Just luck, I suppose. I just followed a hunch and came here, and I spotted him right away. I guess being a fan for so long has given me a bit of a 'Sonic-sense' that allows me to get a good idea of Sonic's general location at any given time. You probably wouldn't understand, though …"

"You don't know who you're talking to," Amy countered. "I've got a bit of that Sonic-sense myself. That's how I wound up here. I have a feeling we have a lot in common. Let's head down to the pier and talk some more, okay? I know a good seafood restaurant over there where we can have lunch together."

"All right. Let's go half-and-half on the bill, okay?"

* * *

"… and then I said goodbye and ran off," Sonic finished. "What a kid."

Sonic and Tails were right in the middle of eating chili dogs at a diner not far from Tails' workshop. It wasn't exactly gourmet eating, but sometimes the simple things in life are irreplaceable.

"Sounds like Amy and I have some competition," Tails joked. "Tell me more about him."

"Well, in terms of body proportions, he was a lot like you, Tails. He was mostly white, with black stripes. Oh, and he also wore a nifty pair of roller-skates with red wheels. I think he thinks he can match my speed with those, though I didn't stick around to see him try it."

Tails nodded. "And what was his name again? Saul?"

"Yeah, Saul. He knew almost as much about me as I know about me. It spooked me a little. He seems like a nice guy, though. I wouldn't mind if-" Sonic took a bite- "if I ran into him again. He definitely has that Sonic spirit in him. Just like you do, Tails."

Tails had never heard Sonic use this term before, but somehow he knew exactly what it meant. "Well, if he does, I bet I'd like to meet him"

Sonic changed the subject. "What about the _Tornado_? Are the repairs on it coming along?"

"I haven't begun the physical repairs yet," Tails replied, "but I've made out an outline of what has to be done. All I need are a few spare parts, and it should be repaired fairly quickly."

"Well, that's good. If things go well, we'll be up in the air before you can say 'Hey, what was that?'"

* * *

"Hey, what was that STUNT you pulled over the check?" Amy yelled at Saul as the two of them were exiting the restaurant by the pier. "I thought you said we were going to split it half and half!"

"We did split it half and half," Saul explained. "You got the half to the left of the decimal point, and I got the half to the right of it. Fair's fair."

Amy scoffed. "Fair's fair? I hope you aren't like this when you go on dates!" By now, she was fuming mad. She displayed a large hammer which she evidently intended to use to flatten Saul with.

Sensing danger, Saul quickly locked down the wheels on his roller-skates, intending to skate for it if Amy tried any sudden moves. This turned out to be a mistake, as Amy struck the raccoon directly in the chest, causing him to skid out of control across the pier. The forceful hammer strike had given Saul a large amount of momentum, and to make it worse, the pier's boards had no gaps in between, making it smooth enough not to slow Saul down any.

A small crowd of people had gathered beside Amy by now as Saul was sent flying into the air by a misplaced ramp at the end of the pier, and covered about fifty yards before hitting the surface of the water with a resounding splash. Many gasps and mutters came from everyone else; Amy's only comment was "Physics in action."

As Amy watched the waves lap up on the shore, however, her heart melted. She rushed to the end of the pier to look for Saul and see if he was okay. Miraculously, a wave dumped the unconscious raccoon on the beach nearby. He was very wet, but he hadn't been harmed. His backpack was okay, too; it was watertight.

Slowly, Saul opened his eyes. Amy breathed a sigh of relief; at least Saul didn't drown. As he came to, Amy helped wring the water out of his fur. He recovered just as she was drying off his tail.

"Amy," Saul finally said, "you could kill someone with that hammer of yours! Oh, my back!"

* * *

Three scenes once again. You may notice that the time frames between the scenes are not always consistent. I think I'm going to continue with this three-scene pattern; it's a nice way to lengthen the chapters I write.

Secrets: Besides Saul, there were two other characters I RP'd on SegaStH. Their names were Shine (a good-natured lark who's a hospital nurse) and Strike (half hawk, half robot, all attitude). Saul gets priority one, however, since he's my personal favorite and the easiest to write about. 


	4. Sonic Adventure 2

Saul

Author's note: I've got a lot of spare time on my hands, what with my Internet access being so spotty and all. I feel better about it if I use my downtime productively. So I've used it to write another chapter.

* * *

Chapter 3: Sonic Adventure 2

* * *

"Does your back hurt?" Amy asked, somewhat confused. "I don't think the way I hit you would give you back pain. Where does it hurt?"

Amy and Saul stood on the pier, facing the waves that lapped up on the shores. Just seconds ago, Saul had been lost in the surf, but Amy had gone after him.

"Right around… here," Saul replied, sticking his hand behind his backpack. As he did, a small object suddenly slipped out from where it had been stuck, and clattered to the ground behind him. Apparently, it had been resting on the ocean floor, and lodged itself there somehow when Saul was in the water. It was a round, azure-colored jewel which Amy had seen before.

Saul looked at the jewel for a moment. "I guess that explains the back pains, eh?"

Amy picked it up. "Wait a minute, Saul. Do you…" She hesitated. "… do you know what this is?"

"I think I do," Saul confirmed. "This is one of those seven… This is a Chaos Emerald. This is one of those things that Sonic always uses to power himself up and save the day. If I remember correctly, this is the same Emerald that you yourself were unknowingly in possession of when that bird was accompanying you during the Chaos incident. It was later locked up in Prison Island before it was stolen by a certain jewel lover. Rouge, I believe her name was. I wonder what it was doing in the water there."

"Beats me," Amy responded. "They always seem to wind up all over the place. But that's one, so the others have to be around somewhere. That's usually the case."

Saul snatched the Emerald from Amy's hands. "I've heard a lot about these powerful jewels, but I've never actually seen one up close. The gleam is so mesmerizing. I feel like I could stare at it all day. We've got to show this to Sonic. He'll know what to do with it."

Amy had to agree. "If we put our Sonic-senses together, it'll be better than GPS. I think he's somewhere near Tails' workshop. What do you think, Saul?"

"Sounds accurate," Saul agreed as he stowed the Emerald in his backpack. "I've got a pretty good picture of that place myself. He and Tails are probably fussing over something. That's my side. Come on, let's pay a visit. I'd like to see what they're up to."

* * *

"I've got it!" Dr. Eggman yelled out. The silence at his base was suddenly broken.

Since his last defeat, the not-so-good doctor had fled to a remote base in the snowcapped mountains due north of the city. Since expedition teams rarely went there and the chilly mountain winds made climbing difficult, it was the perfect location for a secret base. Of course, Eggman himself had set up a special secret underground tunnel so he could enter and exit the base without getting frostbite.

"What have you got, Doctor?" a female voice asked from across the room. A woman a little younger than Eggman approached him. She had blond, Madonna-ish hair and brown eyes. She also wore black, sleek, businesslike clothing and shoes to match. She was a regular Matahari.

Dr. Eggman smirked. "What have I got, Lily? Why, my latest plan to eliminate Sonic, that's what I've got!" Lily was Eggman's recently hired secretary-slash-assistant. The doctor had hired her for a number of reasons. He needed someone to help him out with his "business," and it was nice to have a little companionship sometimes. Lily also reminded Eggman of his late cousin, Maria Robotnik, so a little sentimental value had gone into the decision to hire her. And, of course, all high-tech evil villains need sexy assistants.

"That's all you ever think about," Lily muttered. "Once in a while you could go for the fox or the echidna, but no, it's always Sonic this, and Sonic that. You're so one-dimensional."

"Of course it is," Eggman shot back. "You know as well as I do that Sonic is my number-one threat. If he was out of the picture, his friends would be helpless."

Lily folded her arms. "Whatever. But the least you could do is do something a little original this time around. From what you've told me about your previous pursuits, you always do the same thing: build some super-powerful plan to wreck the world that involves gathering the Chaos Emeralds, and when you've got them all, something really bad happens, and Sonic takes the Emeralds for himself and saves the day."

"So?" Dr. Eggman retorted. "All I have to do is prevent the really bad thing from happening. And this time, I've added double backup override control systems to prevent my invention from betraying me."

On the desk in front of the doctor lay a large blueprint for a huge flying battleship. In the corner, the title was written in nice handwriting: "PROJECT PH34R: FLYING SHARK BATTLESHIP". It looked very intimidating, even on paper.

"The outer surfaces," Eggman explained, "will be made of a special light but impenetrable material. It will be sturdier than diamond; even if Sonic were to use the power of the Chaos Emeralds, he wouldn't be able to dent it. I've already come up with said substance in the chemical laboratory. How's that, Lily?"

Lily nodded. "Glad to see you're finally thinking."

"Yes, well… Lily, I'd like you to look over this blueprint and proofread it for flaws while I begin the next phase of my plan. We've got to get to the seven Chaos Emeralds before Sonic does."

As Dr. Eggman began to leave the room, Lily rolled her eyes.

* * *

"There it is, right over there," Saul announced, pointing at a building in the distance. "That's Tails' workshop."

The forest wasn't very dense. There were trees here and there, but there were fewer trees per acre than some forests, so it was really more of a plain than a forest. Right in the middle of the forest, Tails had set up his workshop; like most scientists, he could work more fluidly without distraction.

"It must be a chore, going there and back," Amy commented, sitting down on a tree stump. "My feet are killing me. When we get there, I might have to sit down."

"Aw, don't be that way," Saul remarked. "You know Sonic. He never gets tired."

After scanning the vicinity for a moment, Saul smirked. "Say, Amy, I know Sonic's a master at acrobatics, so I've been practicing a lot myself. Want to see?"

Amy hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. "Sure. Sounds interesting."

Saul locked down the wheels on his roller-skates. "All right then. Take a look at this!"

For the first part of his stunt, Saul crouched down, taking a runner's stance. Then, he somersaulted forward, curled himself into a tight ball, and spun rapidly in place, emulating Sonic's Spin Dash perfectly. After a few seconds, he released the dash and zoomed forward, heading right for a rock sticking out of the ground. The slope of the rock caused Saul to launch into the air in a parabolic arc, while Amy watched on with interest.

At the peak of the ascent, Saul uncurled and repositioned himself to land feet-first on the trunk of a tree, from which he wall-jumped over to another tree which stood nearby. He landed and jumped off this tree in the same way, and flew over the first tree as he balled himself up again for a landing. When he touched down, he rolled down the path for a few seconds before jumping up and landing on his feet, transferring the momentum to his roller-skates and skating around back to Amy.

"Now how was THAT?" Saul commented as he skidded to a halt in front of the hedgehog girl.

"That was great!" Amy cheered. "It was just so… so… so Sonic! How did you ever get so good at Sonic's moves?"

"Took a lot of practice," Saul responded, taking the Spin Dash diagram out of his backpack. "Took a lot of planning, too. I had to analyze every detail of Sonic's Spin Dash before I could perform it myself. It's all in this diagram here. I finished sketching it a few months ago."

Amy examined the diagram. "I can't believe it, Saul. If you're this skilled, I guess I had better stand aside. Come on. Let's say hello to Sonic and Tails."

* * *

whew What a chapter. Interesting, eh?

Secrets: Why did I stop RPing at SegaStH? I was banned for an indefinite period of time due to various misdemeanors. Now my chances of getting back in there are slim, but I don't mind anymore. 


	5. Emerald Hunters

Saul

Author's note: Three reviews to the latest chapter and not one reviewer was concerned about Lily. I hypothesized otherwise. Shows how much I know about reviewer psychology. Ah well.

* * *

Chapter 4: Emerald Hunters

* * *

"Sonic!" Tails yelled out. "Come quick! Look out the window!"

The interior of Tails' workshop was a mess of tools and gadgetry, but Tails kept it a relatively tidy mess. Several blueprints were tacked up on walls, including one for the _Tornado_. A large window dominated one wall, and this was the window Tails was now seated at.

Hearing Tails' voice, Sonic rushed over and stood by Tails' side. "What do you see out there, Tails?"

Even though he asked this, Sonic quickly saw what Tails was looking at. Someone was pulling off an interesting line of Sonic-style acrobatic stunts. Whoever it was seemed to be almost as good as Sonic himself.

"I think I know who that is," Sonic told his friend after a moment. "Tails, pass me that pair of binoculars, would ya?"

Tails got up and handed the binoculars to Sonic, who held them to his eyes and quickly located the acrobat in question. "Yep, just as I thought," he finally said. "It's him again. That Saul kid must really be a fan of me, if he can do all that without any coaching."

"I'd like to meet him," Tails added. "I'll go out and say hi to him."

Sonic put the binoculars down. "Yeah, I don't blame you. But he's my fan, so I think I should be the welcoming committee."

"Let's both go," Tails suggested. "That way, we can both get some satisfaction."

"I don't know about that," Sonic countered. "He'd probably be all over me and ignore you completely."

"Then I'll go out first, and you can come out a few minutes later. How does that sound?"

"All right. When you want me to come out, call up to me."

Now that Sonic and Tails had settled on a method, Tails approached the door and opened it… and walked out just as Saul was about to walk in. Both large-tailed critters collided with each other and fell to the ground somewhat roughly.

Amy rushed up to the door and helped Saul to his feet. "Saul, you didn't hurt anything, did you?"

Tails was already standing up. "Amy! What- When did you get here?"

"Oh, Tails," Amy replied. "We came here as quickly as he could. Saul has something he'd like to show you."

"Yes," Saul confirmed. And he took the Chaos Emerald out of his backpack and displayed it. The room was filled with gasps as the jewel's brilliance dominated the attention of all parties.

It was then that Sonic came out of hiding, seeing the Emerald, and approached Saul. "What you're holding there is one of the seven Chaos Emeralds," he announced, as if Saul didn't know it already. "They hold great power."

"What should I do with it?" Saul asked.

"Hang on to it," Sonic suggested. "I have a feeling it'll be safe with you."

Saul put the Emerald back in his backpack. "Thanks, Sonic. You're number one."

Tails snapped his fingers. "Oh, that reminds me. Saul, what were those stunts you pulled off outside? Sonic and I saw everything."

Amy took the opportunity to jump in. "Sonic, you know that Saul's a fan of yours, don't you? Well, that goes further than you'd think; he's even been practicing some of your moves. You should've seen that Spin Dash he tried; it was a professional job!"

All four of them laughed. Then, Sonic spoke up again. "I'd like to chat with you for longer, but, eh, Tails and I have work to do. I hope to meet with you again sometime!"

"Wait! Soni-"

Amy's interjection was cut off as Sonic practically slammed the door in her face. For a moment, she and Saul looked at each other without a word from either party.

"Something tells me we had better find something else to do than pursue Sonic," Saul said, finally breaking the silence.

"I guess you're right," Amy agreed with a sigh. "I vote that we look for more Chaos Emeralds. How does that sound?"

Saul nodded. "Yeah. The other six Emeralds have got to be around somewhere. I say we search the temple ruins southwest of here. It's just a suspicion in my mind, but my suspicions have a high tendency to turn out to be true."

That sounded good to Amy, so the both of them left the workshop, hand in hand.

* * *

"Doctor, I'm all done."

Lily got up from her seat and approached Dr. Eggman, who had come in to check on his assistant.

"Is that so?" Eggman replied. "What's the verdict?"

"It looks like the Flying Shark is good to go, but there's one thing that disturbs me," Lily explained. "The inner walls of the battleship aren't as well protected as the exterior. If Sonic were to get in there and use the power of the Emeralds to energize himself and do some destruction, he could cause a chain reaction and destroy the whole thing from the inside."

Eggman only laughed. "Do you see any way Sonic could get in there, even with the Emeralds on his side?"

"Well, not by force, but look at the holding cells here. If you're going to put Sonic in one of them-"

"I'm not. That's where Sonic's friends are going to go. I'm not even going to try to keep Sonic in any of those cells."

Lily smiled. "If you're not, then you just might be smarter than I first assumed." Eggman wasn't sure whether to take this as an insult or a compliment, but before he could think about it too much, a beeping noise filled the room.

Eggman jumped. "Lily! I think that's the radar! Check it right away!"

"Yes, sir, Doctor," Lily blurted out as she rushed over to the nearby radar screen. It displayed an overhead map of the entire vicinity, and a grey light was blinking somewhere to the south. A pale blue light was blinking, too, and it was headed toward the grey light.

"The radar's picked up a Chaos Emerald in the temple ruins along the southern coast," Lily decoded. "There's also another Chaos Emerald in the vicinity, but I think it's being carried by someone. Whoever has it is heading for the ruins, too."

"It must be Sonic!" Eggman deduced. "He has to be after the Emeralds; we've got to beat him there!"

"Negative, Doctor," Lily interrupted. "The DNA tracker shows that Sonic the Hedgehog isn't anywhere near there. It's someone else. But whoever it is is definitely after the Emeralds as well."

"Whatever! Lily, come with me. Oh, and please lock up the base on your way out. We're taking the Eggscavator."

Lily rolled her eyes at this lame name, but she tried not to show her feelings.

* * *

It's only two scenes, but I decided to settle for that when I saw how long the first scene turned out.

Secrets: When I was on SegaStH, the one moderator I most often butted heads with went by the alias of Kato. He was a stickler for the rules, and fumed at god-modding; one thing I like to say about him is that "he'd yell at me for buying a bottle of milk if one of his characters was lactose-intolerant." On the other hand, he was a great computer artist; he did many pictures of SegaStH characters. 


	6. In Ruins

Saul

Author's note: I'm writing this chapter aboard an airplane to London. We're en route back to the United States. Ah, I love laptop computers.

Chapter 5: In Ruins

* * *

"Just think," Amy said. "About one hundred years ago, this place was frequented by ancient people."

Amy and Saul stood at the edge of the temple ruins which lined the coast. The ruins were a mess of fallen pillars and ancient architecture, and even though it was high tide, the water did not quite touch the remains. They had used to be a tourist attraction, but now the hype had died down, so hardly anyone came to visit them anymore.

"Yes," Saul agreed. "Kinda makes you think, doesn't it? But never mind that. We've got to search this place from top to bottom if we want to find the Chaos Emerald."

"But it's so big," Amy replied. "We'd better work out a plan. Saul, how about if you search the northern portion of the ruins, and I'll search down near the coast? We'll meet back here in about half an hour if nothing turns up. How does that sound to you?"

This sounded good to Saul, so the two of them split up and began to search.

* * *

"Lily!" Dr. Eggman yelled out. "Status report!"

Dr. Eggman and Lily, as pilot and copilot, had landed the Eggscavator on the west end of the ruins. The top half was humanoid, with a tractor beam generator in the head, a large drill bit for a right hand, and a missile cannon for a left hand. The bottom half was like a tank, with armor and impressive treads that let it crush anything in its path. All in all, it was very intimidating.

"The Eggscavator is in top condition," Lily announced, "and the Emerald is clearly visible on radar. It's to the south of here. I'll send the readout to your viewscreen."

Lily typed at a keyboard for a few seconds until Dr. Eggman's viewscreen displayed a blinking silver dot over a map of the city. "I've got it," the doctor announce. "Buckle your seat belt, Lily. We're going on a road trip!"

Eggman engaged the throttle, and the Eggscavator's treads roared into action, propelling the massive mecha forward and literally smashing everything in its path. A country western song played on the radio; as he drove, the doctor hummed along and bobbed his head to the beat, while his assistant covered her ears.

"Doctor!" Lily finally yelled out. "You know I hate country western. Besides, you're going to miss the Emerald at this rate. Pay attention!"

Snapping to attention, Dr. Eggman turned down the radio and, checking the viewscreen once more, shut down the throttle. The Eggscavator's treads rolled to a halt, and according to the radar, the Emerald's location was a large temple dead ahead.

"Lily!" Eggman commanded. "Missile that temple!"

"Roger!" Lily confirmed, typing some more. On her viewscreen, the temple in question was framed by a targeting reticle. A missile clicked into the Eggscavator's launching chamber, and rocketed out toward the temple. There was a satisfying burst of sound and light as the missile exploded, and then the temple was no more.

"Nice shot, Lily," Eggman complimented her assistant. "Do you see the Emerald anywhere on your viewscreen?"

"Negative, Doctor- but I do see a pink hedgehog girl nearby. We didn't see her earlier because the temple was in the way. She was lucky not to get knocked back by the explosion. She's running away now, to the north. Your orders, Doctor? Should we give chase?"

"No. If we do that, someone could come snatch the Emerald while we're away. Let's start digging."

At Dr. Eggman's command, the drill arm on the Eggscavator whirred into action, and it began to demolish the site.

* * *

"Saul! SAUL!"

The raccoon whose name was being called was right in the middle of trying to peek under a fallen column. He had dug away the dirt beneath it in order to reach the underside, but all his work turned up nothing. Upon hearing Amy's voice, Saul stood up, nearly hitting his head on the pillar.

"What is it, Amy?" Saul asked.

Amy took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "It's Dr. Eggman. I'm sure of it; it couldn't be anyone else. He's got this big… thing."

"Big thing?" This sounded a little unusual to Saul. "Another one of his machines, I assume?"

"Yes. It's got this big missile cannon and this big drill and these big treads and… Oh, the instant I saw it, I ran for my life!"

Saul smirked. "Sounds like we're not the only ones who are after the Emerald. Come on, Amy. Let's go confront this contraption."

Amy blinked. "Are you sure? I'm not sure it'd be a good idea to go back there…"

"Whenever I'm in a situation where I don't know what to do," Saul explained, "I ask myself one simple question. You should, too. Amy, what would Sonic do in this situation?"

After thinking about it for a moment, Amy nodded. "All right, I get the point. Come on, let's give that metallic mess what it deserves!"

* * *

"Doctor! Stop drilling and back off!"

Hearing this command, Dr. Eggman pulled back on the control lever. The drill whirred to a halt, then spun in reverse direction and ejected itself from the hole it'd made. The Eggscavator backed itself away from its work site as Eggman hit the reverse.

"What is it that's so important, Lily?" Eggman dared to ask after this task was done.

"Well, two things," Lily explained. "One, we've uncovered the Emerald. Look at your viewscreen."

Examining his viewscreen, Dr. Eggman couldn't argue. "Ah, I see. Lily, hit the tractor beam!"

A large green beam shot out from the Eggscavator's head unit, around where the nose would be, and enveloped the grey jewel that was the Chaos Emerald. The Emerald slowly lifted itself out of the ditch and rose up to eye level with the Eggscavator. Then, Lily deactivated the beam, and the Emerald dropped into its mouth, where it would be stored until Eggman and Lily got back to base.

"We've got it!" Eggman cheered. "What was the second thing, Lily?"

"Well," Lily replied, "remember the other Emerald that was on its way here, the one which I said was being carried by someone? Whoever's got it is coming this way! In fact, check your viewscreen- here he is now, and so is the girl from earlier!"

Amy and Saul screeched to a halt in front of the Eggscavator. "You were right," Saul confirmed. "This is Dr. Eggman's architecture for sure."

"If we ever want that Emerald, we're going to have to get this machine out of the way," Amy added. They didn't know that Eggman had already found the gem.

Suddenly, a voice boomed out of a loudspeaker on the Eggscavator. It was Dr. Eggman. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Sonic's girlfriend, Amy Rose. Who's the raccoon?"

"My name's Saul the Raccoon," Saul introduced himself. "We're hunting for Chaos Emeralds, and you're in our way."

Another, female voice erupted from the loudspeaker. "A fan? Well, you'll be a fried fan before we're through with you. So, Doctor, this girl is Sonic's girlfriend?"

"Yes, she is," Eggman's voice chimed in again. "Didn't I tell you about her?"

"Speaking of girlfriends, Dr. Egghead," Amy interjected, "who's that female voice I just heard? Don't tell me she's YOUR girlfriend?"

Amy and Saul couldn't see into the cockpit, but they knew Dr. Eggman was gritting his teeth by now. "Why you-! Just for your big mouth, you're going to be the target of my first missile!"

* * *

That should do it for the chapter. Four scenes this time, since they're shorter than normal. Remember the two scenes in the last chapter? It works both ways.

Secrets: While I was on SegaStH, I spent some time making 1024-by-768 desktop wallpapers of various SegaStH characters, Sonic Adventure-style, out of Kato's computer art. I didn't ask his permission, but I did credit him whenever necessary, and he didn't seem to mind. It's just too bad I never got to do wallpapers of any of my own characters. 


	7. Boss Battle

Saul

Author's note: I've discovered the best way to go about writing. I have to get started. As long as I can get myself started, I can write.

* * *

Chapter 6: Boss Battle

* * *

"Lily!" Eggman commanded her copilot. "Fire one- and make sure to target the girl!"

Inside the Eggscavator's left arm, one of its seemingly infinite stock of missiles clicked into the chamber, while the others moved up in the queue. Then, a mechanism in the chamber activated the missile and instantly programmed its target into it, and it ignited and rocketed out of the chamber, heading right for Amy.

Seeing the missile arc in the direction it was headed, Saul reacted quickly. He immediately locked down the wheels on his roller-skates and rammed Amy, causing both of them to fall to the ground as the missile missed its target by inches. It tried to corner, but its turning mechanism was a little slow, and it smashed into the ground with a small explosion that did minimal damage.

Amy panted slightly. "Thanks, Saul. You're just like Sonic. But, you know, it's not like I couldn't have dodged that without your help."

"Don't pull that ego of yours up too high," Saul shot back. "Besides, this is serious business. We can forget the arguments for now."

Around then, the sound of a drill bit whirring called all attention to the Eggscavator's drill-hand, which was now about to plow into the spot where the two heroes lay. Amy and Saul jumped out of the way just in time to avoid getting drilled.

Saul took this opportunity to climb up the arm of the Eggscavator and get on its shoulder. By the time the drill was out of the ground, Saul had already used a Sonic Spin Jump to attempt to plow into the device's head. All Eggman machines, he figured, are weak in the head; that's how Sonic always beat them.

He was wrong. Instead of damaging the Eggscavator like he planned, Saul bounced off the head like a small rubber ball thrown at a bust. Over the loudspeaker, Amy could hear Eggman laughing at Saul's futile attempt. Lily quickly joined in.

Amy lunged forward and caught Saul as he dropped. "That thing's made of some serious metal," Saul mentioned once he was on his own two feet. "We've got to find a weak point."

Saul and Amy split up and ran around the Eggscavator just as it launched another missile, targeted at Saul this time. (It missed, too.) The treads were covered up just as well as the missile was, and the drill bit showed no signs of weakness, either. It was armored to the teeth, or at least it would be if it had any teeth.

"No good," Amy announced when the two of them met up behind the Eggscavator. "Its exterior is completely protected. There's no way we can harm it."

"I don't know," Saul replied. "However protected its exterior is, I bet its INterior isn't well armored."

Saying those words, Saul led Amy back around to the front of the Eggscavator and pointed at the missile cannon's barrel. It was perfectly round, and its size was perfect. He also pointed at a flat rock that was sticking out of the ground at an angle, away from the machine.

"How good are you at tennis, Amy?"

"I was queen of the junior courts when I was younger," Amy replied. "Why do you bring that up?"

"Well, that's good, because I have a little thing called an idea. Here's what we do …"

* * *

"Doctor, what's going on down there? What are they doing?"

"I don't know, and I don't care! Fire more missiles, on my mark! Aim the first one at the raccoon, and alternate from there!"

* * *

"Now, Saul!" Amy cried out.

Saul was standing between the sloped rock and the Eggscavator, with his back to the latter and his body in a crouched stance, ready to Spin-Dash at an instant's notice. Amy stood in front of them both, with her hammer brandished like a tennis racket.

At Amy's command, Saul revved up a Sonic Spin Dash and zoomed off the rock, shooting into the air. Amy quickly swung her hammer, volleying Saul back toward the Eggscavator. At about the same time, a missile clicked into the chamber, and was about to launch when Saul landed squarely in the barrel of the launcher, striking the missile's tip and causing it to explode inside the chamber.

* * *

"Doctor! Something detonated the missile while it was still in the chamber! I think the explosion's starting a chain reaction which will blow us both sky-high!"

"What! In that case, Lily, hit the ejector! Forget the Chaos Emerald; we've got no time to stop and retrieve it!"

* * *

The explosion not only caused a chain reaction, it sent Saul flying out of the barrel of the missile cannon. Amy could only watch helplessly as Saul disappeared into a speck above the horizon.

At that point, the Eggscavator burst apart with a resounding KABANG. A hovercraft and a hover bike escaped right before the explosion, and Amy couldn't give chase. But before she could occupy herself further, she noticed something gleaming among the used parts. The grey Chaos Emerald.

Amy approached the Emerald slowly, as if she were afraid it would be booby-trapped. She picked up the Emerald, and examined it. Then, she put it in her pocket and traded it for her cell phone, on which she dialed a number. "Hello, Tails? It's me, Amy Rose. … Well, that's a bit much to explain. Could you come down to the temple ruins south of town? That's where I am."

* * *

"Lily," Dr. Eggman yelled, "that was your fault!"

The doctor was piloting his trademark hovercraft over the landscapes of the area. His assistant piloted a special hover bike with the same color scheme and similar architecture, but there was a purple cursive "L" monogrammed on the side.

"MY fault?" Lily shot back. "YOU were the one who built that stupid device, Doctor! The least you could do is check it for design flaws!"

Eggman was enraged. "The design was perfect! If you'd launched that last missile more quickly, we would've whipped those two!"

"I was launching it as quickly as I could! We'd be fine if you'd taken the time to design a faster launching mechanism!"

"Shut your big mouth, Lily! We'll settle this once we get back to the base."

"All right. And another thing. Next time, I choose the radio station we listen to!"

* * *

Ah, those two are arguing like a married couple. I've decided to trash the three-scene rule altogether, and just write what feels right.

Secrets: My decision to give Saul roller-skates was an homage to Lan Hikari of the _Mega Man Battle Network_ series, which I was and still am a big fan of. Lan wore a pair of swift inlines with red wheels, and for some reason he could walk normally as well as skate, and skate on all terrains and even up and down stairs without falling. When I was on SegaStH, Saul wore inlines too, and had many of these "skills" as well. I changed that betwixt there and here because here it was more likely that someone would question it. 


	8. A New Development

Saul

Author's note: When I've got no Internet access and nothing else to do, I write. Such is the case here.

* * *

Chapter 7: A New Development (EDITS MADE)

* * *

"… and when Tails arrived, I told him the whole story," Amy finished.

In Tails' workshop in the woods, Amy was gathered with Tails and Sonic. The latter two had cleaned up the area a little in preparation for the gathering; the blueprints had been neatly tacked to the wall, the grease stains had been wiped up, and the tools aad been shelved neatly.

"Did you see which way Saul went off in?" Sonic asked.

Amy shook her head. "There's no telling where he is now. The explosion could've put him in orbit for all I know. I'll miss him, though. He was a pretty good friend to have, even if he did cheat over the seafood bill."

Sonic put his hand on Amy's shoulder. "Don't worry so much about it, Amy. I don't know where he is now, but I don't think he was killed. He's probably still alive somewhere."

Bad move. Without warning, Amy suddenly jumped up and gave Sonic a hug and a kiss. "Oh, Sonic, you're so compassionate! You'd make a perfect husband!" Tails had to rush over and pry Amy away.

About then, Amy remembered something. "Oh, Sonic… you'd better hold on to this." She displayed the Chaos Emerald that she'd picked up after the Eggscavator exploded.

Sonic took the Emerald. "Thanks, Amy. This Emerald will be safe with me. And Saul had one, right? That means there are five left out there. Tails, you stay here and continue work on the _Tornado_. I'm gonna go looking for the others."

Zip! With those words, Sonic took off through the door, which Amy had carelessly left open. Amy looked on with bewilderment before speaking. "Hey, Sonic, wait for me!" And she ran off after Sonic.

Tails watched the both of them from the door frame. "Ah," he said to himself. "I guess no matter what happens, Sonic will always be Sonic, and Amy will always be Amy."

* * *

"What happened? Where am I?"

Somewhere due west of the mainland, a large island stood out in the water. A suspension bridge connected the island with the mainland, as it was a popular vacation spot. On the island somewhere, Saul slowly opened his eyes. Miraculously, the explosion had not caused him any physical harm other than some singed spots on his fur, but he had hit his head on a palm tree when he landed.

Saul slowly got to his feet, rubbing his head. "Oh, I feel like a ton of bricks has just been dropped on me. How in the world did this happen?"

Seeing a tourist cross his path, Saul stopped him. "Excuse me? Could you tell me where I am? I think I just got thrown for a loop."

"Whatever, kid," the tourist replied. "This is the popular vacation spot, Seagull Island."

"Seagull Island?" Saul echoed. He snapped his fingers. "I know the place. Thanks, Mac."

As the tourist left, Saul began to remember some of the events that'd recently happened. He could remember back up to when he and Amy confronted the Eggscavator. "Dr. Eggman," he hissed.

Saul took a "Give me liberty or give me death" type of pose. "Dr. Eggman, you'll pay for what you did to me. I'll get you back, or my name isn't Sonic the Hedgehog!"

With that, the identity-challenged raccoon roller-skated his way toward the bridge, apparently not realizing that Sonic the Hedgehog was not a raccoon… nor did he wear roller-skates. The blow to the head had apparently damaged his memory to cause this spectacle. Oh dear.

* * *

"Doctor!" Lily cried out, rushing into the room. "I have news to report!"

Dr. Eggman's office was just as high-tech as the rest of the base. The doctor himself sat behind a professional-looking desk, with a computer monitor in front of him. Lily had to activate a fingerprint identification sensor in order to get in.

"So does the TV newscaster," Dr. Eggman replied sarcastically, "but SHE never barges in here like that. What is it that's so important, Lily?"

Lily panted slightly. "Forgive me, Doctor, but I've been watching the surveillance system you set up to watch the fox's workshop. Do you remember the Emerald we almost got in the ruins, but the girl took it?"

Eggman nodded. "Yes. What about it?"

"Well, she just gave it to Sonic. Now he has it, and they're both going out again."

"We must get that Emerald at all costs! We can't try the direct approach, though. Sonic would throttle us if we tried that."

"What do you suggest we do, Doctor?"

"I've got an idea. Let's ignore Sonic for now and capture the girl without Sonic noticing. It'll be easy, trust me. I've done it many times in the past."

"All right, Doctor. Then what?"

"There's an old abandoned outpost in the woods. I've got it marked right here on my map. We'll hold her there for ransom. And by 'ransom' I mean the Chaos Emerald."

Lily clapped her hands. "Doctor, that's pure genius! Let's get started as soon as we can."

"That's the spirit, Lily. If you'll prepare the outpost for Sonic's arrival, I'll worry about capturing the girl."

* * *

Uh-oh. It's just one thing after another, isn't it?

Secrets: Another moderator on SegaStH went by the alias of Jamie Lee. It was due to her that I ever found the website, since she had mentioned it on another site. Near the end of my time on SegaStH, Saul had a crush on one of her characters, Midnight the Bat. 


	9. Kidnapping!

Saul

Author's note: Doesn't seem to be an enthusiastic reply to Saul's amnesia. Ah well. I'm the one writing the story, and I get to write it any way I please.

* * *

Chapter 8: Kidnapping!

* * *

_Okay,_ Sonic thought to himself as he ran. _All I have to do is figure out where the Chaos Emeralds might have ended up this time around. I bet GUN wound up with one; I just hope they aren't still sore at me from the other day._

Sonic had made a return trip to the city. This time, though, it was not for leisure. His target was City Hall. Since the last time he was at the city, it had gotten slightly less busy, and things had slowed down, so he didn't have to push his way through.

This was a good thing, because Sonic actually had two goals: finding the Emerald and losing Amy Rose. As usual, Amy was close behind. "Sonic!" she kept yelling. "Come back here!" But her voice only encouraged him to run faster.

Amy followed Sonic up and down the streets. Neither gave in, and the chase continued for thirty minutes straight. Eventually, Sonic managed to perform a magnificent wall jump between two buildings which Amy could not repeat, and she was left behind.

A look of disappointment on her face, Amy could only watch helplessly as her crush made his escape. _I wonder if Saul ever gets left in the dust like this,_ she thought as she watched Sonic flee.

Before Amy could think about it any more, however, a hand reached out of the shadows and grabbed her, and she yelped and disappeared from view. Sonic did not notice; he was already five blocks away.

* * *

_Dear Sonic,  
Looking for your girlfriend? We don't blame you if you can't find her, since we've kidnapped her. She's with us at the old outpost. The location is marked on the map below.  
If you want her back, you must come to the outpost alone, with no reinforcements whatsoever. Bring this note and the Chaos Emerald, but nothing else. If anyone or anything else shows up, the girl dies.  
Signed, Dr. Eggman and Lily Ellington_

Lily got up from her position at the keyboard. "How does this look, Doctor?"

The two villains had set up camp at the abandoned outpost. Lily had just finished typing a document on a laptop computer, while Eggman looked into the distance with evil on his mind.

Dr. Eggman turned around and examined the computer screen. After a moment, he grinned. "It looks perfect, Lily. Print it out."

In response to this command, Lily clicked on the menu bar and pulled down to PRINT. A few clicks later, a sheet of paper began to slide out of the nearby printing machine.

Grabbing the sheet of paper, Dr. Eggman looked it over. Then, he turned to face the helpless body of Amy Rose, who was completely tied up and gagged behind a nearby storage building. "You, Miss Obsessive, will help us out in a big way."

"Doctor! DOCTOR!"

Hearing Lily call out, Dr. Eggman whirled around. "Yes? What is it, Lily?"

"I meant to tell you earlier, Doctor, but I didn't get the chance. When I was cleaning out the outpost, I found this."

Lily displayed a ruby-red jewel which seemed to glow. This was yet another Chaos Emerald. Why it was at the outpost was uncertain, but there it was, and it was now in Lily's hands.

"Oh, that's one of the Chaos Emeralds," Eggman confirmed. "Very good, Lily. I'll take this back to the mountain base; it'll be safe there. Lily, I'd like you to stay here and guard the outpost. Don't worry about this letter; I'll post it."

"Very well, Doctor," Lily replied, handing over the Emerald, "but I have one thing I'd like to ask you."

"Shoot."

"Why didn't you just write the thing yourself? It would've saved us both a lot of time."

* * *

"… and that's why we need the Chaos Emerald, Miss Nell," Sonic finished.

City Hall was well guarded, but being a well-recognized figure, Sonic got in with no problem. He was speaking to a middle-aged female jaguar wearing a professional-looking business suit with GUN's logo on her badge. This was Jackie Nell, GUN's representative in City Hall.

Jackie nodded. "Yes, Sonic, I understand. We did find the green Chaos Emerald, and it's at our jungle HQ. I can't tell you where it is- its location is top secret, and you never know when someone might be spying on you- but we can make arrangements to bring it to you."

"Excellent!" Sonic replied. "When can I expect to get it?"

"Well, that depends. We need a location to deliver it to."

After a little hesitation, Sonic approached a large area map mounted on the wall and pointed at one location. "This is the site of Tails' workshop. It's not marked, but that's where it is. If you can deliver it there, my friend Tails will be happy to pick it up."

Jackie Nell inspected the map. "Yes, I think I know what you're talking about. One division of GUN's going over there on recon first thing tomorrow morning. We'll have them drop it off. How does that sound?"

Sonic snapped his fingers. "First thing tomorrow morning. Got it, Jackie. Thanks a lot. I'll go tell Tails the good news."

That issue settled, Sonic made a salute, then dashed off at his usual speed. Jackie Nell watched on. _What a nice guy that Sonic is,_ she thought to herself. _I'm glad I wasn't on duty during the ARK fiasco. I'd never be able to go to sleep at night if I felt like I was even partially responsible for jailing him._

* * *

It's just one thing after another, isn't it? Hope to see you next chapter!

Secrets: At one point while I was at SegaStH, I had Saul get lost in the Mystic Ruins and wind up knocking on the door of the trailer of the evil Dr. Talon (RP'd by Kato). Since Saul's presence would ruin Kato's plans, and Saul was simply not supposed to be there, Kato pulled a fast one on me by revealing that instead of Dr. Talon, the trailer Saul had ended up at belonged to an irate redneck with a shotgun and a coonskin cap. I got the message immediately, and so did Saul. That was a really dirty maneuver on Kato's part, but I was too busy laughing to yell. 


	10. Good News, Bad News

Saul

Author's note: I'm finally back from Maine, and Strafer seems to be slacking off a little. Not that I'm one to complain, though. Okay, okay, I guess I AM one to complain, but that's beside the point.

* * *

Chapter 9: Good News, Bad News

* * *

"Tails, I've got some good news for you."

In the woods, Tails was standing at the doorstep of his workshop. Sonic had rushed up to him in his usual hurry, and Tails always enjoyed watching Sonic show off.

"Really?" Tails replied to his idol's sentence. "What's the good news?"

Sonic smiled. "I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to… nah, just kidding. I spoke with GUN's represa- repris- repru- well, I spoke with someone who was there to represent GUN at City Hall. They'll deliver the green Chaos Emerald here first thing tomorrow morning."

Tails clapped his hands. "Excellent! That's one more Chaos Emerald that Eggman doesn't have. Let me know straight away if you locate any more Emeralds, okay, Sonic?"

The mood of the conversation turned sour, however, when Tails remembered something else. "Oh, Sonic, wait a minute. This note was left at the workshop a few minutes ago."

"Wait a minute" was hardly in Sonic's vocabulary, but he did so as he took the note from Tails' hands. "Dear Sonic… hm… blah blah blah… signed, Dr. Eggman and Lily Ellington. Well, I was wondering how I'd lost Amy so easily."

Tails was visibly worried. "What are we going to do, Sonic?"

"You can just chill, Tails," Sonic replied. "The note wants me to come to the outpost on my own, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. Don't worry about a thing, Tails. I'll be fine. I always have been before."

Despite being a bit hesitant, Tails agreed, and Sonic made his exit with the note in his hands. _I have faith in Sonic,_ Tails thought to himself. _He'll be okay. I just know it._

* * *

"Yoo hoo!" Sonic called out. "Dr. Eggman? Amy? Where are you?"

Sonic was right in the middle of the outpost marked on the map, with the note in one hand and the Emerald in the other. GUN had taken position at the place a few months earlier, and when they'd left, the place had been left a mess. A lot of military equipment still lay around, and several old tents were still standing.

A sudden voice caught Sonic's attention. "SONIC! Is that you? I'm over here! Get me out of here!"

"Amy!" Sonic exclaimed, and he immediately dashed for the location. Sure enough, there was the girl, trapped in a large cage that GUN had used to hold captive enemy soldiers.

Sonic tried the door. It was locked with a key, and said key was nowhere to be seen. "Amy," Sonic asked, "where's the key to this cage?"

"If I tell you," Amy replied, "will you marry me?"

When Sonic didn't answer, Amy quickly realized what the answer was. "All right, all right. The key was taken away by that lady who's Eggman's assistant. I think she still has it. Can't say I know where she went, though."

At that moment, a loud rumble filled the air. "Sonic!" Amy yelled out. "Sonic! Behind you!"

Sonic whirled around and spotted what Amy was talking about. Eggman had just shown up in a large multi-legged mechanical whatsis that resembled a spider. Printed on the side were the words "EGG TARANTULA".

"I see you brought the Emerald," Eggman called out through a speaker. "Are you going to hand it over quietly or do I have to take it from you?"

"Take a guess!" Sonic shouted back, preparing to take the offensive.  
Before Eggman could react, Sonic made a dash up the Tarantula's leg and spun himself into a ball, plowing into the cockpit. Eggman yelped as the Tarantula shuddered from the attack, while Sonic landed neatly on the ground.

"You PEST!" Eggman growled. "Take this!"

Three missiles launched from the underside of the Tarantula's body. They were programmed to automatically seek out Sonic and aim toward him, but the crafty hedgehog made a spectacular jump, causing two missiles to crash into each other and explode. From there, Sonic landed on the side of the third missile, riding it like a wild horse as he guided it back toward its "mother.

At the last second, Sonic jumped off, as the missile nailed the Tarantula's cockpit, making it shake even more. Now Eggman was even angrier than before. He pulled a switch, and one of the Tarantula's legs picked itself up and tried to swat the troublesome hedgehog. But Sonic only took advantage of this as well, and jumped up onto the leg, then into the cockpit as he'd done before.

The third blow to the Tarantula's cockpit was too much for the leg joints, which snapped loose from the impact, causing the whole thing to fall apart with a shudder as Eggman hit the ejector and fled in his hovercraft.

Sonic stood over the wreckage with a smug look on his face. "That was way too easy."

Before Sonic could enjoy himself any more, though, he suddenly felt a stinging sensation in his back, and his body began to go numb. In two seconds, Sonic could not move at all, and he began to feel dizzy.

Lily came out from the tent she was hiding in, carrying the stun gun which Eggman had made for her. She calmly picked up the immobilized hedgehog and carried him toward the cage.

After a moment, Lily set Sonic down and began to pry the Emerald out of his hands, not noticing that the wind had taken the ransom note and thrown it off into the distance.

* * *

Suspenseful? Maybe. But that Egg Tarantula battle, in my opinion, was pure Sonic.

Secrets: Once on SegaStH, a member by the name of Riyami posted a large image whose size interfered with the page layout. This was early on, and I saw the problem and informed her of it in my own unique way. This is what I said: "Ryami (sic), for Pete's sake, crop that image. You're stretching the space-time continuum." Riyami didn't listen, but I adopted the phrase "stretching the space-time continuum" as a catchphrase of mine to describe any image posted in a forum that caused that problem. And a moderator later replaced the image with a link. 


	11. Success and Failure

Saul 

Author's note: Okay, let's see. I updated _Red and Purple_ last time, so now I update this story. Then I'll update that other story that isn't about Sonic, and after that I'll come back to _Red and Purple_. Ah, routine.

* * *

Chapter 10: Success and Failure (EDITS MADE)

* * *

"But Tails, I keep telling you- I'M Sonic the Hedgehog!" 

Saul had spent the past fifteen minutes arguing with Tails on the doorstep of the latter's workshop. He still hadn't recovered from his "memory condition," and he still thought he was Sonic, no matter what Tails said. Basically, the argument was going in circles by now, and both parties were growing sick of it.

"Listen to reason, Saul," Tails protested. "Sonic the Hedgehog is not a raccoon!"

"I am not a raccoon," Saul shot back. "Stop wasting my time with nonsense, Tails!"

Before Tails could say anything more, a piece of paper that had been tossed about by the winds blew right smack into Saul's face, blinding him for a few seconds. When he pulled it off, he read it over from top to bottom. (I won't tell you what it was- you should've guessed it already!)

"Dr. Eggman," Saul said quietly. Then, he repeated it more loudly, as anger began to build. "Dr. Eggman! The fiend! Capturing Amy just so he can have his way! Well, if he wants the Chaos Emerald, I'll give it to him!"

As Saul skated off into the distance, Tails's head dropped into his hands.

* * *

_The only thing worse than being trapped in a cage,_ Sonic thought to himself, _is being trapped in a cage with your obsessive girlfriend._

Back at the outpost, the cage that formerly held Amy by herself now held Sonic as well. Needless to say, Sonic wasn't exactly happy about his jailmate, but by now she had tired out and was now asleep. Nearby, Lily leaned against a speaker-pole, with the key clipped to her belt, and Eggman, who now had Sonic's Emerald as well as the one Lily found, was repairing the Egg Tarantula.

"How are the repairs on the Egg Tarantula coming, Doctor?" Lily asked.

"Quite well," Eggman replied, "considering the fact that the first time through I purposely made it so that Sonic would wreck it. It'll be good as new in minutes."

Lily only smiled, and turned back to face the cage. For about fifteen minutes, Sonic struggled with the cage, Amy kept sleeping, Lily remained on guard duty, and Eggman finished his Tarantula repairs. It wasn't too eventful.

Then came disaster. At about the same time Eggman booted the Egg Tarantula up again, a certain raccoon showed up on the scene. "Dr. Eggman, you're going nowhere!" he yelled out.

Amy woke with a start. "Wha-? What's going on?"

Saul approached Amy. "Amy! There you are. I got Dr. Eggman's ransom note. Don't worry, I'll beat on him some and leave with both you and the Emerald in my hands."

When Sonic tried to interrupt, Saul noticed him. "And just who are YOU, you impostor?"

Sonic blinked. "You're calling ME an impostor? Just who do you think YOU are?"

"I," Saul shot back, "am Sonic the Hedgehog, the blue blur himself. And YOU are a grade-A impostor or my style. Sheesh, you remind me of Shadow." Eggman and Lily made no attempts to interrupt this scene; it was much too much of a turn of events to them, and they were too surprised to act yet. And besides that, it was kinda amusing.

"Wait just a minute!" Amy interjected. "You are not Sonic. Look in the mirror, for Pete's sake. I know Sonic when I see him, and Sonic is here in the cage with me. In fact, I believe you're Saul the Raccoon."

"Don't even bother," Sonic whispered to Amy. "I think he has amna- anime- ammo- anmi- well, he's lost his memory. He thinks he's me."

Around then, the Egg Tarantula began to approach the group of three. "Well, who have we here?" Dr. Eggman said aloud.

Saul turned to face the Tarantula. "Dr. Eggman, I brought the Emerald. Come out of that thing and face me like a man!"

_Ah! I forgot about the Emerald he had,_ Eggman thought to himself. _All right, I'll play this one._ Then, he spoke. "Nothing doing, rac- uh, hedgehog! You'll have to beat me first!"

"So be it!" And with that, Saul repeated Sonic's technique of rushing up the leg and bashing the cockpit. It did just as much damage as when Sonic had done it.

Just as last time, the missiles came next. This time, there were four. Saul jumped between two of them, landed on the third, but missed the fourth. The missile knocked him in the side of the head, causing him to fall to the ground, hit his head on a rock, and go unconscious.

"Saul!" Amy screamed. Somehow she seemed to care about Saul almost as much as she did Sonic.

The impact to Saul's head wasn't enough to knock him out for more than a few seconds, but it was sufficient to undo the effects from the previous blow. When he got up, he couldn't remember anything that'd happened since he and Amy had quashed the Eggscavator.

Looking around, Saul immediately spotted the cage, and rushed over to it as if he hadn't just been to it. "Sonic! Amy! What are you doing in that cage?"

"Blame Dr. Eggman- he's right behind you," Sonic replied. Saul turned around, and there was the Egg Tarantula. Deducing all over again that the weak point would be the cockpit, Saul attempted to roller-skate up the Tarantula's leg to hit it.

It didn't go too well. The slope of the leg caused Saul to roll back and hit the ground, which for some reason hadn't happened when he thought he was Sonic. Lily took advantage of the opportunity, drew her stun gun, and dunned the raccoon from her vantage point.

Eggman laughed. "Good shot, Lily. Put him in the cage with the other two. And don't forget to search him for the Emerald."

"Roger, Doctor." Lily reached into her back pocket for the key to the cage.

The key was gone.

* * *

"The key was gone." What a powerful thing those words say if used correctly. See ya next chapter! 

Secrets: I first joined SegaStH on February 17th. Remember Saul's zodiac sign at the beginning of the fic?


	12. Escape

Saul

Author's note: I just made some minor edits to a couple of the earlier chapters. They should have (EDITS MADE) tags on them, so take a look.

* * *

Chapter 11: Escape

* * *

"Yoo-hoo! Did you lose something?"

Lily turned her head. Inside the cage, Sonic was dangling the key on his finger. He had picked her pocket while she was watching Saul. Lily rushed over to snatch the key back, but it was too late; Sonic had already undone the lock and kicked the door open.

"No! This isn't happening!" Lily yelled out.

"Yes! This is happening," Sonic shot back, picking up Amy and making a break for it. The effects of Lily's stun gun had still not worn off, so Sonic knocked her down and grabbed Saul as well. He didn't even stop to tangle with the Egg Tarantula as he fled.

"What is the meaning of this?" Eggman growled.

Lily was just getting up. "They just escaped, Doctor," she yelled up to her boss.

"Well, what are we waiting for? We've got to go after them!"

"No, let's not risk losing what we already have," Lily replied. "We've got two Chaos Emeralds. Let's take what we've got and look for the others before worrying about what they have."

Eggman nodded. "Good idea, Lily. Let's head back to base. Gather up the emeralds and follow me. And don't forget to double-check and make sure nobody's following us."

* * *

"Thanks for coming to save us, Saul," Sonic commented.

Sonic had made the trip clear to Tails' workshop with Saul and Amy in tow. About halfway through the trip, Saul had recovered and managed to skate alongside Sonic, who had slowed his pace a little so his fan could keep up. Upon arriving, they'd spent about five minutes recovering.

"What are you talking about, Sonic?" Saul replied. "YOU were the one who saved ME. I didn't do anything."

"Well, you tried," Sonic explained, "and that's the important part. I know you kinda weren't in your right mind when you showed up, but I'm sure that if you were, you'd have done the same thing." Saul had by now figured out what'd transpired when he thought he was Sonic.

Saul laughed a little. "I guess you're right. You still think I should keep the Chaos Emerald?"

Tails stepped in. "Yes, I think that'd be okay for now. Just don't let anything bad happen to it, and remember that as long as you've got it, you'll probably be a target of Eggman and… what was her name? Lily?"

"That was the name on the ransom note," Sonic confirmed.

All attention turned to Amy, who had not spoken since the rescue. She seemed to be concerned about something; her had was to her chin, and she stared off into the distance.

Sonic stepped up. "Amy, is something wrong?"

"No, nothing, Sonic," Amy replied. "I've just been wondering about something ever since the rescue. It's about Saul."

"What about me?" Saul asked, inevitably.

Amy turned around to face everyone. "When Saul thought he was Sonic, his performance was almost as good as yours, Sonic. But when he came to his senses, even though he tried the same techniques, his skill seemed to drop. I'm not sure why that is."

Sonic snapped his fingers. "I think I know. Saul, when you've faced Eggman up until now, how have you approached him? What was your main strategy?"

"I just do what you'd do," Saul responded after hardly a thought.

"Exactly," Sonic explained. "You think of what I'd do in the same situation, and then imitate that. But let me tell you something, Saul. Just mimicking me all the time won't ever get you up to my level. You'll just restrain yourself."

Saul was a bit confused by this explanation. "Then what will?"

Sonic folded his arms. "What you really want to do is focus less on what I'd do, and more on what you'd do. Push my technique to the side, and add a little of your own style to it. Then you'll be a winner."

It took a moment for Saul to get his words out. "But, Sonic, the Spin Dash and all that… it's so great! I can't give all that up! I haven't even finished figuring out the Homing Attack yet!" As he spoke, he took the Sonic Spin Jump diagram out of his backpack.

Tails took the diagram and looked at it. "This is a pretty nice diagram, Saul. I can't believe you took the time to draw this."

Sonic only smiled. "Well, don't give everything up, but come up with a few techniques of your own that I don't specialize in. Just think of the differences between you and me, and try to build something from there. Tails figured that out right away."

"I did," Tails confirmed. "The only way I got to the level I'm at now was by combining some of Sonic's techniques with a few I came up with on my own. That's what you should do as well."

Saul rubbed his furred chin. "I guess I never thought of it that way. Thanks a lot, guys. I'll go home and see what I can do. And Sonic, no matter what happens, I'll always think of you. See you, Sonic. I'm gonna split now."

With those words said, Saul made his exit, new confidence visible in his eyes. Amy watched from the door frame. _He seems more and more like Tails all the time,_ she thought to herself.

* * *

RIRIRIRIRI! RIRIRIRIRI!

"Hello. Jackie Nell here. … Oh, General. I didn't recognize your voice. … Yes, I did order your department to deliver the Chaos Emerald during recon. What's your progress? Have you dropped it off yet? … You WHAT?"

* * *

Er, if it looks like I was a little desperate to end the chapter on a cliffhanger, that's because I was.

Secrets: SegaStH used a special "dice" system. When a character attacked, the attacker and defender would each roll one die (there was a special forum feature that allowed them to do that, so no cheating) to determine the outcome. Whoever rolled the higher number got the upper hand. A 6 on attack against a 1 on defense meant a critical hit. Throughout my career at SegaStH, I won one such die roll, broke even on one, and lost every other. In fact, my first such roll was a critical hit, and Saul was on the business end. 


	13. Air

Saul

Author's note: Deltoran got me back into SegaStH, so I'm on a bit of a high right now. That's why I haven't been writing lately. But now, here I am. There's still one thing that bothers me, though. The SegaStH Saul, as I've now realized, is quite different from this story's Saul in several ways. How am I ever going to close the gap?

* * *

Chapter 12: Air

* * *

"I've got this move all planned out, Amy. Just watch me."

It was the morning after the incident at the outpost. Few people were at the city park. This, along with its even mixture of sidewalks, trees, and other features, made it the perfect training grounds for Saul, who had been practicing for a few hours now. Amy had come into the park on an unrelated note, and met up with Saul by chance.

Amy studied the diagram Saul had handed her. Since the previous day, Saul had taken Sonic's words to heart. The diagram that Amy was holding had been drawn of Saul himself performing the move, while in previous drawings Saul had drawn Sonic to get a handle on how the move worked, then himself to see how he would copy it.

"All right," Amy finally said. "Go to it, Saul. I want to see this."

Saul nodded. "Okay. But could you take my picture when I do?" He pushed his personal digital camera into Amy's hands and quickly explained how to use it. It was a camera Saul had bought himself, hoping he could photograph Sonic in action; he hadn't gotten the chance, though. As Amy examined the camera, she wondered how Saul had ever gotten the money to buy it.

In a matter of minutes, Amy was holding the camera, ready to take a picture. "Okay, Saul. I'm ready. Go!"

After backing up for distance, Saul skated forward and took a huge jump. As per usual, he curled into a ball, Sonic-style, the second he left the ground. But at the peak of his jump, he suddenly uncurled and jumped again in mid-air, getting even more distance. He even punched the air enthusiastically as he did this; that was when Amy took the photo.

Saul landed neatly on top of a statue, scaring away a group of pigeons, and climbed down to meet up with Amy. "So? Did you get the picture?"

Amy handed back the camera. Saul called up the picture on the camera's viewscreen and looked at it. "This is very well taken, Amy. You should become a photojournalist." It was indeed well taken; Saul was perfectly centered in the photo.

When she was done blushing, Amy stood up and returned the diagram. "So what kind of move was that, Saul?"

Saul seemed a little nervous as he answered; he fiddled with his tail a little. "Ah, that? It's a double-jump of sorts, I guess. I call it the Raccoon Skip. The name's right there on the diagram. I found a way to use my own natural raccoon agility in conjunction with some Sonic-style aerodynamics."

Amy nodded silently. She had stopped listening about halfway through Saul's explanation, but it would have been rude to say anything.

* * *

"Sonic!" Tails yelled out. "Sonic! Come quick!"

Back in the woods, Sonic was right in the middle of some of his own technique practicing not far from Tails' workshop. Tails now stood on his doorstep, calling out for Sonic. A sense of urgency was visible in his voice.

Hearing his sidekick's voice, Sonic rushed up in front of Tails. "Hey, Tails. Something wrong?"

Tails seemed out of breath. The answer to Sonic's question was very obvious. "Sonic, I just got a phone call from City Hall. GUN's representative, Jackie Nell, told me about the Chaos Emerald they were going to deliver here."

Sonic folded his arms. "So? Did they?"

"They were going to," Tails replied, shaking his head, "but someone ambushed them on the way and stole it. They didn't see who it was, but according to the description given by the commander, I think I know who it was."

"It was Eggman and Lily, wasn't it?" Sonic interjected.

Tails shook his head again. "No, not this time. It appears that it was none other than a certain jewel-loving bat girl that we both know the identity of." Sure enough, the image of Rouge the Bat was in both parties' minds now.

"Who'd have thought that she'd poke her nose into this whole mess!" Sonic muttered. "So the score is one Emerald with Saul, two with Eggman, and one with Rouge. There are still three we don't know about."

"We should find them," Tails stated, as if he wasn't pointing out the obvious.

Sonic concurred. "Yes, we should find them. But, Tails, I think you should keep working on the _Tornado_. Don't worry, I'll take care of everything. See ya!" And with that, Sonic was gone.

Tails watched Sonic's typically quick exit. His smile quickly faded to a frown. "Once again, I get left out of all the fun," he muttered to himself.

* * *

Well, that about wraps it up for the chapter. Quite a twist, eh?

Secrets: There was no real limit on the number of characters any one person could have in SegaStH, even though I never had more than three. Kato himself had a whopping seven when I was banned: Dr. Talon, Eri, Shadow, Faulco, Otaku… uh, what were the other two again? 


	14. Emerald Hunters, The Sequel

Saul 

Author's note: I got fed up with SegaStH and now I've left for good. Now the only Saul I know is this one. To take its place in my life, I created my own Sonic RP by the name of Sonic Interface. It takes place 250 years after the years of the Sonic games, and the good-versus-evil clash still continues. If you're interested, check out the home page link in my profile. But I didn't come here to pass out flyers, so on with the story!

* * *

Chapter 13: Emerald Hunters, The Sequel

* * *

"Okay, let's review what's happened so far," Eggman began. 

The war room of Dr. Eggman's base was dominated by a large table in the center of the room that displayed a detailed map of the land, just like any war room. Plastic figurines of Eggman, Lily, Sonic, Amy, and Saul resided on various places around the table. Eggman and Lily sat opposite each other in the center of the longer edges of the table. Of course, they were not fighting an actual war, but it was pretty close.

"We went for the Chaos Emerald in the ruins down south," Lily began, pushing the appropriate figurines to the location, "but got it snatched by Amy and that raccoon. The latter was blown off into the distance, and we didn't see where he went. Amy left with the Emerald, which she gave to Sonic."

Eggman added to Lily's explanation, doing the appropriate things with the figurines. "After that, we concocted a plan. We kidnapped Amy and held her at the outpost for Sonic to come get her, demanding the Chaos Emerald as ransom by a written note. It worked, and Sonic was captured, but the raccoon, who had a mental problem and thought he was Sonic, somehow got the note."

From there, the duo went over how Saul had failed to defeat them, but had also served as a perfect distraction for Sonic to escape with Amy. The raccoon still had one Emerald, and they had two. But where were the other four?

"That raccoon," Lily pointed out, "will be a major thorn in our side if we don't do something about him." So saying, she picked up the figurine of whom she was talking about and held it in her hand. Eggman did not disagree.

But before either party could talk about it any longer, a siren sounded. "Security breach in sector D," an electronic voice called out. "Security breach in sector D. Security protocols engaged."

Lily and Eggman glanced at each other. Sector D was where the Chaos Emeralds were being stored; someone must have been trying to steal them! Lily volunteered to check the sector while Eggman made his way to the control room to deactivate the sirens.

* * *

-KNOCK KNOCK- 

In Tails' workshop, the young two-tailed mechanic had not expected a visitor so soon after Sonic had left. Believing it to be Sonic, Tails opened the door, only to find himself looking at two people who were not Sonic.

"Oh. Saul, Amy. I didn't expect to see you two back here so soon."

Amy smoothed out some wrinkles in her dress. "Well, we were bored, so we decided to stop by. We were kinda hoping Sonic would be here. I guess we're out of luck." Saul concurred.

Tails simply shook his head. "Yeah. You just missed him. He went looking for more Chaos Emeralds. You know how those things always become the focus point of whatever we're involved in. Me, I'm stuck here alone repairing the _Tornado_ after that nasty collision the other day."

Saul approached the broken plane in question. "This looks nasty. Of course, this baby's been through a lot. I mean, take when you and Sonic were pursuing the Egg Carrier. It literally ripped the wing off with that big death beam, and you and Sonic were separated in the crash. While you were …"

While the raccoon went on and on, not caring that nobody seemed to be listening, Amy walked up to Tails. "Do you know where Sonic is looking, Tails?"

Tails responded in the negative, quickly adding that even if he did, Sonic has enough problems without having to deal with without an obsessive girlfriend following him everywhere. Not a good thing to say. Thankfully, the sounds of Amy beating Tails into the floor was enough to get Saul's attention, and he stepped in and separated Amy and Tails.

After that, everyone decided on a plan of action. Saul would go out to search for the Emeralds on his own, while Amy remained at the workshop to keep Tails company while he continued repairs. As soon as it was decided, Saul was gone, while Tails and Amy watched on.

"He's more like Sonic every time we see him," Tails commented. "Next thing you know, he'll have spines on his back!"

* * *

-DING A LING- 

Sonic the Hedgehog pushed open the door of a local jewelry store with all kinds of gems on display. For obvious reasons, this was one of Rouge's favorite places to visit. She was friends with the owner, a middle-aged red wolf by the name of Lupe. Of course, rumors circulated that his relationship with her went beyond that.

"Welcome to Lupe's Jewels," Lupe greeted his customer before he even saw who he was. "Feel free to look- oh, you're Sonic, aren't you?"

"Glad to see my popularity's as good as ever, Luke," Sonic remarked. "How have things been going with you and Rouge?"

"It's Lupe, with a P," the wolf muttered, adjusting his glasses. "Rouge is still my best customer, though I haven't seen her since yesterday. She said she knew where a couple of the High Seven were, and she was going to go get them, but she wouldn't tell me the details."

Sonic rubbed his chin. "High Seven" obviously referred to the Chaos Emeralds. If he could find her, he could get one up on Eggman with the Emerald count. And speaking of that, Sonic could sense it…

"Say, Luke- I mean Lupe- you wouldn't happen to have one of the High Seven here in your shop, would you?"

Answering in the affirmative, Lupe reached under the counter and pulled out a display box, opened it, and showed him the yellow gem inside. It looked exactly like a Chaos Emerald, but it was actually a cheap replica; Lupe made a lot of money selling these phonies to gullible customers.

Sonic, however, was not a gullible customer, as he quickly demonstrated by swatting the box to the side. "Don't pull that trick on me, Luke, I don't fall for that. Show me the REAL Chaos Emerald!"

After letting out a loud sigh (and muttering "It's Lupe" once again), Lupe went into the back room and reemerged with a slightly duller box. In it was the real yellow Emerald, and Sonic could tell.

"The Chaos Emeralds are about the most valuable jewels in existence," the red wolf mentioned. "That's why they're known as the High Seven. If I were to put a price tag on this baby, it'd be fifty thousand Rings at least-" Sonic shot a glare at him- "but since you're Sonic the Hedgehog, you can have it for free."

"Thanks a lot, Luke. See ya."

And in his usual style, Sonic left the store at supersonic speed as Lupe watched on. _I'm glad most of my customers aren't as perceptive as he is,_ he thought to himself, _otherwise I'd go bankrupt._

* * *

That's it for the chapter. I think I did well. 

Secrets: For the second period of my time on SegaStH, I produced three more characters. Allison James (mountain lion, producer and lead actor for a hit TV show), Joshua Kay (raccoon, covert ops agent for GUN) and Tracy Amber (robin, somewhat unlucky Central City press reporter) obviously had shorter careers than my "first generation" did.


End file.
